Partners and Friends
by hann789
Summary: A one-shot with spoilers for 5x05 and the 'intimate moment'. What happens when things that could change a relationship are ignored and boil over? Temperance tries to understand the feelings she has for her best friend and partner. Booth/Bones.


**A/N: Another little tidbit from my Bones obsessed mind. I haven't been able to keep myself out of Bones-land for several days and well, my minds brings up stories. This is a little one-shot that has come out of that. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hart Hanson, but I'd give my left arm to work with him.**

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The sun was setting over the Washington DC skyline as Dr. Temperance Brennan clutched the cup of coffee in her hand as she sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It had been a long day, a long case really. They'd finally be able to wrap it up earlier that afternoon and had arrested the suspect. And Booth, in his normal Boothy-ness had been able to retrieve a full confession. Another bad guy had been put behind bars.

History had been changed again.

She smiled in spite of herself. It was just like normal.

But things hadn't been normal in awhile. Booth's coma had changed things. She knew it and so he did, but they choose to ignore it. At least as well as they could. Avalon had brought out more of those feelings than she would have liked. Facing her feelings for Booth was something she didn't want to do. It terrified her.

"_The answer to the question you are afraid to ask is, 'yes', he knows the truth of you. And he is dazzled by that truth."_

She wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. Not that she took much credence in what a psychic had to say anyways. Then again, there were other things that Avalon had said had come true.

How could she not put some credence in that.

Then there was the issue with Andrew. He'd been so upset about her decision to go on a date with him that she knew that he wasn't saying something he was feeling. It was odd, the way Booth had reacted.

Then there was that moment in the Anok Mummy Exhibit. They had been inches apart and she thought for a moment that he was going to reach across those last few inches and press his lips against hers.

Yet, there was an interruption. Her best friend, the rest of their squints, calling for them, causing them to break apart before they were actually joined. She cursed them internally for that interruption.

Angela had cursed herself when Brennan had confessed to the interaction. They'd ignored the near-kiss since then. An agonizing three weeks. They'd interacted, yes, just like they had before his coma or before their near kiss in the empty exhibit of a Egyptian mummy where she had changed history, but they hadn't discussed what was in the forefront of her mind.

The sensation she had was an odd one. Something she was sure she hadn't felt in years, if ever. It was the release of endorphins she categorized as love, however, when she thought the feelings would fade they only grew.

She was sure now that they had been growing for months, if not years.

Dr. Temperance Brennan was in love. In love with her partner and best friend Special Agent Seeley Booth.

It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. But she didn't know how to tell him. Or to even begin to explain it.

No one knew what she was feeling. Not even Angela, who could typically read her like a book and certainly not Booth who could almost always read her and know what was going on. It was a strange feeling, like she was all alone, floating on some debris in the middle of the ocean. Lost, only to herself.

The thought of telling Booth, explaining her feelings were more frightening than her actual feelings.

"Bones!" The voice she'd been daydreaming about for the last hour suddenly rushed into her head and her head shot up and meet the warm brown eyes she loved.

Yes, loved.

"I've been looking all over for you," Booth called, "I thought we were meeting at the lab to finish paperwork. Angela said you went to get coffee and didn't come back. You can't just disappear like that…"

"I'm fine Booth," she answered automatically. "I'm just thinking…"

"About…"

"Just stuff," Brennan assured him. "How did you find me?"

"I know you enough to know where you might escape too, I guess." Booth answered and seated himself next to her. "So, are you going to tell me what's really going on in that brilliant head of yours?"

"I…I don't know what's going inside of my brain. It's all rattled."

"Rattled?"

"Confused, you know, not sure."

"I know what it means Bones," Booth said with a sigh, "I just meant what did you mean by it. You aren't usually 'rattled'."

"I'm experiencing some strange feelings."

"Okay…"

"What happened between us the night of the mummy exhibit?"

Her question seemed to stun him into silence. They always had the unwritten rule to not talk about the tension that happened between him at any given moment. She was going against their normalcy in asking what happened. She wasn't sure how he was going to answer the question.

Booth rubbed the back of his neck with a groan and Brennan looked down on him in earnest. The question hung in a balance between them and with each second that passed Brennan became more and more nervous.

In a nervous banter she started talking before Booth could answer. "You know what, never mind. Forget I asked…"

"I was going to kiss you."

His words stopped her there. They were simply put and brief and Brennan didn't doubt them for a moment.

"I would have let you."

Her response surprised him as well and he looked at her with evident shock on his face. He wasn't expecting her answer, that was obvious.

"What?" She asked him. "What did I say?"

"You, you would have let me?"

"I wanted you too."

"You…did?"

"Yes."

The one word answer from her was enough for him to not resist any longer and his mouth found hers with a passion they'd been hiding for years.

"Wow," he breathed when he finally pulled away, out of breath. A smile forming on his face. Brennan could feel a matching one growing on hers.

"You are a good kisser."

"Thank you Bones," Booth said with a grin. "You aren't so bad yourself."

"What about the line?"

"What line?"

"The line you drew when you said that people who work in high danger situations couldn't be involved romantically. You said that after Epps…"

"After Epps poisoned Cam," Booth finished for her. "I remember."

"So…what about it?"

"I don't know…"

"I don't want to work with any other agent other than you Booth," Brennan told him. "I won't."

"I know that," he answered. "But I can't guarantee they won't split us up if we are involved."

"But you want to be…involved, I mean."

"Hell yes," he answered quickly without any doubt. "Don't you?"

"I have to admit that the feelings I have for you go beyond friendship. It's like I love you."

"Like you do?"

"I don't know if I can say for certain what I'm feeing. I've never experienced anything like it before. It's new to me."

"You want to try and explain there Temperance? Maybe then we can figure it out together?"

"That was what I was thinking about before you found me," she told him honestly. "And I think I would like very much to share it with you."

"Okay, shoot."

"Shoot what?"

"It's, I didn't mean actually shoot. It's a phrase. It means, explain."

"Oh, then why didn't you just say that?"

"Never mind," Booth said with a grin. "Just go on."

"I miss you. Whenever we aren't together I wait for you to come through my office doors with a case just so I can spend time with you. I don't think I've ever been this close to anyone, including Angela. You know things about my past, my family that I couldn't share with anyone else. I wouldn't want to. You're always there for me and I feel safe when I'm with you. Like, when the Gravedigger had me and Hodgins, I knew you wouldn't give up looking for me. And that gave me hope. You are…Booth. And I can't imagine my life without you in it."

"Wow Bones," Booth whispered against her ear placing a soft kiss at the base of her neck. "I can't imagine my life without you either."

"When the FBI faked your death and I didn't know about it, that was the most horrendous thing I've ever had to live through. Or, when the Gravedigger had you and we didn't know if we'd find you in time…I was panicked. And your brain tumor, your coma…I've never been more devastated. I ran away from it, from you, so I wouldn't have to deal with the feelings I was having."

"Temperance…"

"I don't think I'd be able to go on without you Booth. I'm sure I wouldn't want to."

"You know what that sounds like to me?" Booth asked and Brennan swept her hand over the wetness on her cheeks with a shake of her head. "That sounds like love to me."

"I was thinking that was what I was feeling…but it just doesn't…"

"Bones," Booth interrupted, "don't say anything else. Love isn't something you can solve with an equation or an anthropological find. It's pure and you feel it in your heart and soul. Everything doesn't have a scientifically accurate answer."

"But…"

"It doesn't, Tempe, and you don't have to completely understand that…"

"Good, because I don't."

"I can't live without you either, Bones." Booth told her with a smile. "And I love you too. And not just in an 'atta girl' type of way, but in a I want to spend my life with you beside me type of way."

"Wow."

"Yeah," Booth responded with a small laugh. "So…what do we do now?"

"I think now that you should kiss me again," Brennan told him with a smirk. "Then we get dinner at the diner or order Thai food and finish our paperwork from the last case and then relax with a movie?"

"You relax with a movie?"

"You like movies, right?

"Yeah," Booth replied. "I like movies."

"Then I can enjoy a movie with you," Brennan assured him. "Just nothing bloody."

"Nothing bloody?"

"I don't like to watch anything bloody for recreation. I deal with enough bloody stuff at work. I thought you would too."

"Got it, nothing bloody. Now, what was that first part?"

"Um," Brennan answered pretending not to remember. "Oh, that's right…I think it was something about you kissing me…"

"That's right," Booth said with a grin before bringing his lips down on hers. The kiss was passionate and they were both out of breath when they finally pulled away. Booth smiled and placed his forehead against hers. "I can really get used to that."

"Me too," Brennan agreed with a matching smile. "So, we're going to keep doing this, right?"

"Oh yeah," Booth said with a laugh. "We're definitely going to keep doing this."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Brennan answered. "I guess we should get dinner and get back to work now?"

"Yup" Booth said. "Let's go, but I'm picking out the movie for later."

"I still don't have a TV."

"You'll come back to my place then."

"Booth," Brennan interrupted him, "I love you. I really do."

"I love you too, Temperance. I always have."

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it and it didn't come across too mushy…but I'm in a fluffy mood. Please review, it keeps me going!!**


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